Iranian official visits Moscow for Syria talks

(MNA) – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian officials on the latest developments in Syria.
Amir-Abdollahian’s visit to Moscow comes as Kofi Annan announced on Thursday that he will quit his high-profile role as special envoy to Syria at the end of August.

Annan criticized world powers for their failure to unite to stop the chaos in Syria.

Annan told reporters that when he accepted the job, "which some called `Mission Impossible,"' he wanted to help the international community, led by the UN Security Council, find a peaceful solution to the crisis. The goal was to stop the killings of civilians and human rights abuses, as well as to place Syria on a path toward political transition.

"The severity of the humanitarian costs of the conflict, and the exceptional threats posed by this crisis to international peace and security, justified the attempts to secure a peaceful transition to a political settlement, however daunting the challenge," Fox News quoted Annan as saying.

But the former UN secretary-general told reporters that he cannot go on when the New York-based 15-nation Security Council doesn't fully back him, particularly because of the stalemate between its five veto-wielding members: Russia and China on one side, the United States, Britain and France on the other.

"Things fell apart in New York," he summed up. "The increasing militarization on the ground (in Syria) and the clear lack of unity in the Security Council have fundamentally changed the circumstances for the effective exercise of my role."